


Descent From Hope's Peak

by Instrumentalist



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dangan Ronpa & Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-08-09 05:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7789177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Instrumentalist/pseuds/Instrumentalist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before the School Life of Mutual Killing could begin, something happened that made the mastermind seemingly disappear without a trace. With no idea why they're trapped here, the 78th Class of Hope's Peak Academy begin searching for a way out, and for answers...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unforeseen Derailments

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Manaya_Karyam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manaya_Karyam/gifts).



“…”

Pain.

“Ah…”

Headache.

“…?”

Something was strange.

“What…?”

It hurt to move.

It hurt a little to move.

Opening her eyes didn’t hurt.

…

Something was strange.

A classroom? An empty classroom?

A camera mounted from the ceiling, pointing straight down… the windows covered by giant metal plates, crudely bolted to the wall… A small video screen on the wall, screen dark…

She pushed herself off the face of the desk she was seated at and took a proper look around. …No, that was the situation. An empty classroom with giant metal plates, a blank video screen, and a security camera hanging down from the ceiling. This was most definitely abnormal.

She tried to remember how she got here. With an environment this weird, she ought to remember getting here too.

…Nothing.

Not just the past twenty-four hours were gone. The past day, week, month, year…

She could barely remember anything.

_What was her name?!_

She let out a shuddering sigh of relief when that came to her. “That’s right… Kyouko Kirigiri…”

Other things jumped out at her now that she had found that. She knew where she was _supposed_ to be. Hope’s Peak Academy. Accepted because of her Super High School Level talent…

…which had also been erased from her memory.

She took a deep breath. Panicking wouldn’t help. She needed to investigate what was going on. Perhaps this was just part of an unorthodox welcoming ceremony.

She stood up and left the classroom.

The hallway was empty as well, but she suspected that she wasn’t alone anymore. Something about the air suggested… someone else’s presence. She looked around, noticing more cameras hanging off of the pillars, pointing at the ground. There was also a large metal gate blocking off a staircase to the next floor up. It didn’t seem right. Why was everything so quiet? Why was there a gate blocking the stairs? Why all the cameras? She shook her head, and moved on, looking for someone else.

She found him standing by the entrance to the gymnasium. He was tall, skinny, blond, sharply dressed. She knew his name…

Of course. This was Byakuya Togami, the Super High School Level Affluent Progeny.

“Byakuya Togami,” she said cooly.

He looked over at her, momentarily surprised by her appearance. That was quickly replaced with a practiced look of disdain. “Ah. Kyouko Kirigiri.”

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, indicating the door to the gym.

“Thus far, this is the only door I have found that is not locked from the outside,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “Everywhere else is blocked.”

“Interesting…” She glanced around, spotting a camera just above the door.

He caught her look. “You’ve noticed too, hmm?”

“Yes. It’s strange that there are so many cameras around here so… conspicuously.”

“Agreed,” he said tersely. “Something is not right.”

“Why haven’t you looked inside the gymnasium?” she asked.

He stiffened. “I can only assume that we were supposed to come here. As much as I operate alone… it wouldn’t be wise to go in until others come here as well.”

“I see.”

Someone else rounded the corner. She was easily a head shorter than Kyouko,and seemed incredibly nervous as she looked around. “Ah! A-are you guys students too?”

“Yes,” Kyouko said. “Who are you?”

“Oh, um… m-my name is Chihiro Fujisaki,” the girl said, gripping her backpack a little tighter. “S-super High School Level Programmer. W-who are you?”

“I’m Kyouko Kirigiri,” Kyouko said.

Byakuya didn’t even acknowledge Chihiro’s presence. She shrank away from him. “Who’s h-he?”

“That’s Byakuya Togami,” Kyouko said. “Super High School Level Affluent Progeny.”

“Oh…” Chihiro didn’t seem placated. “A-are others coming?”

“I would assume so,” Kyouko said, looking back down the corridor. “But given the events of today so far, I wouldn’t be completely sure.”

Chihiro was most definitely not placated by that.

* * *

Slowly, the other twelve members of the class congregated by the door. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, nor how they’d gotten here. The whole thing smelled of something sinister, but nobody really wanted to find out who or what was responsible. They were much more content to stay outside the door until something forced them in. But as more people showed up, the lack of something happening became more and more worrying. When Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Super High School Level Moral Compass) arrived, his timekeeping only exacerbated their nervousness. Something was wrong.

A few hours after the last student, Makoto Naegi (Super High School Level Luck), arrived, still nothing had happened. No announcements over the loudspeakers, no new arrivals, no opening or shutting doors… What was going on?

“Something should’ve happened by now, right?” Aoi Asahina said from a corner of the hall. “They wouldn’t leave us out here all day.”

“I agree,” Sakura Oogami said. “Something about this situation is not right, even considering its own oddity.”

“Should we, like, go through the door or something?” Junko Enoshima suggested quietly. “It _is_ the only unlocked door.”

“We don’t know what’s behind it,” Celestia Ludenberg said. “For all we know, something could be in there waiting for us.”

“But wouldn’t that something have come to get us by now?” Mondo Oowada asked. “I don’t think it would take its fuckin’ time with us sitting out here like this.”

“If we don’t look, we can’t find out,” Kyouko said. “It’s the only room we haven’t looked in yet, so there’s nothing to be gained by staying out here.”

“Who should go in, then?” Sayaka Maizono asked. “Because—it seems a bit dangerous to all go in there at once…”

“Maybe we should send in a couple tough people first, in case something _is_ waiting,” Leon Kuwata suggested. “Like, uh, like Oogami-san and Oowada-san.”

“Of course,” Mondo sighed angrily, standing up. “I’m part of the fuckin’ search party! I get to die first because I’m tougher than everyone else!”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up!” Yasuhiro Hagakure shouted. “I didn’t sign up to _die_ here!”

“I think if we were expected to die here, you would be dead already,” Byakuya sighed impatiently. “Let’s find out what’s behind the door and be done with it.”

Sakura and Mondo approached the door. “Well,” Mondo said, “here goes nothin’, I guess.”

He swung open the door.

“Well, uh… I don’t see anything weird in here. It’s just a trophy room.”

He backed up, letting everyone else look inside. “So it appears,” Kyouko said.

“So the gym’s through that other door, then?” Junko said.

“I guess so,” Leon said. “Should we go in?”

Slowly, everybody entered the trophy room and clustered by the door to the gym. “Okay, here we go,” Mondo said, and cracked the door open.

“…Nothing. I got nothing.”

He gingerly opened the door all the way and entered the gym. “It’s way too fuckin’ quiet…”

Sakura followed him in. “…Agreed. Nothing seems to be here.”

“Really? Nothing?” Aoi said. “That seems mega-weird.”

“If there’s nothing inside, then why was the door unlocked?” Makoto wondered.

“Someone must’ve been expecting us,” Celestia said. “But it seems that _they_ are the ones not to show…”

“I think we’re clear, guys!” Mondo called out.

Everybody in the trophy room exchanged nervous glances, until Byakuya finally sighed and said, “Fine. If nobody else is going to go first, I suppose I will.”

He strode confidently to the door and swung it open, entering without a second thought.

“…Well, then I guess we can go in,” Aoi said.

“Surely some form of a tutorial awaits us!” Hifumi Yamada exclaimed. “The beginning of a new game!”

“This isn’t a game,” Celestia sighed, pushing past the door.

Everybody else entered the gymnasium. True to Mondo’s word, the room was deserted except for themselves. The stage at the other end of the room was empty, and the cameras all were pointed at the floor. “T-this is too weird!” Touko Fukawa exclaimed. “S-something is r-really wrong here!”

“What the actual fuck is going on here?” Mondo wondered aloud.

“I think we have another piece of evidence suggesting that we aren’t about to meet anyone else here,” Kyouko said. “Has anyone else noticed that all of the cameras seem to be turned off?”

Most of the group shook their heads, but Byakuya said, “I noticed as well. It seems whoever would be watching us has left the building.”

“So, like, we’re alone in here?” Junko asked.

“I… guess?” Chihiro said uncertainly.

“No, no, that can’t be right,” Sayaka breathed. “Surely there must be _somebody_ here!”

“What, up on the second floor where we can’t go?” Mondo asked incredulously. “Why would they lock themselves away from us?”

“Hey, guys, check this out!” Makoto called out from the stage.

He pulled something out from behind the podium at the edge of the platform. “I found this behind the podium! Take a look!”

Everyone gathered around the podium, and Makoto revealed—

a teddy bear.

“That’s it?” Junko said. “A teddy bear?”

“That’s a really weird teddy bear, dude,” Leon said. “Like, look at that red eye!”

“I don’t think this is a normal bear,” Aoi agreed nervously.

“Look for a tag,” Celestia suggested. “It must have some sort of label.”

Makoto checked the plush fabric for a tag. “Oh, here we go… It’s called… Monokuma?”

“Monokuma? Really?” Yasuhiro laughed. “Even I know that’s a lame pun!”

“Hey, wait a sec…” Makoto said, frowning. “There’s something in this bear… Has anyone got something sharp?”

“I’ve got a Swiss army knife,” Mondo offered.

“Thanks…” Makoto sliced open the fabric. “Whoa! This thing—this thing is a robot!”

“What?!” Touko exclaimed.

“Look!” Makoto presented the open side of the bear, revealing a complicated tangle of wires and electrical components nestled underneath the plush fabric.

“Okay, that’s really weird,” Hifumi said. “What would an ursine robot be doing behind a podium?”

“That is the million-dollar question,” Sakura mused. “Perhaps this was supposed to be our welcome?”

“A remote-control bear?” Celestia scoffed. “A very strange welcoming committee, if I do say so myself.”

“Something tells me that it’s supposed to be on,” Makoto said. “Why is it off, then?”

“Is it in some sort of s-sleep mode?” Chihiro asked.

“It looks completely off,” Makoto said. “No lights on or anything.”

“Something tells me that this is connected with the cameras,” Kyouko said. “I get the feeling that our “welcoming committee” has disappeared.”

* * *

Further investigation all but confirmed their growing suspicions. A second sweep of the hall revealed that most of the doors on the first floor had been unlocked by everybody after they woke up, and Makoto found a stack of ElectroID cards hidden in the podium that gave them access to the doors with card readers. Despite their best efforts, none of the steel plates covering the windows budged an inch, and the door that was labelled as the entrance by the floor plans they found in the cafeteria was similarly sealed shut. It appeared that they were trapped, alone.

On the bright side, though, it seemed that they would not be lacking for comfort in this prison. The fridges were well stocked, and Sayaka found a sticky-note inside the door of one that suggested they would be restocked every night. It wasn’t enough to put everyone at ease, but the possibility of their food supply being replenished daily made some of them feel a little less scared. Their dorm rooms all proved to be quite cozy, the laundry room more than up to the task of handling sixteen teenagers’ wardrobes, and the bathhouse looked _very_ nice. For a place they couldn’t escape, they appeared to have lucked out on amenities.

They congregated in the cafeteria for dinner that evening, both uplifted and disheartened by their discoveries. “Y’know, part of me feels happy,” Mondo sighed as he sat down, “but the rest of meis kinda sad. This place is sweet and all, but… I also wanna get the hell outta here, y’know?”

“I know what you mean,” Leon said, running his hands through his hair. “Plus, this place gives me the freakin’ creeps, man. What’s with all the iron plates?”

“Presumably, they’re here to keep us in,” Byakuya said shortly. “No use dwelling on it, seeing as we can’t remove them.”

“We must adapt to this new environment,” Celeste said. “It will be to our benefit if we do not fight this change.”

“E-easy for you to say,” Touko said. “But s-some of us have c-careers to maintain, y-y’know!”

“I don’t think that should be your biggest concern right now,” Celeste replied with a small smile. “We _are_ trapped here, you know.”

“We should prioritize finding out why we’re here,” Kyouko said, twirling her hair idly. “If we can at least determine that, we can remove much of the uncertainty surrounding this situation.”

“Agreed,” Sakura said. “Knowing is half the battle, as they say.”

“We should also find out what’s happened to the people who were supposed to be here to watch us,” Makoto said. “If they’re still here, maybe we can help them.”

“That’s a very _friendly_ approach,” Junko said. “But they could, like, _really_ not like us. I don’t think this is Hope’s Peak’s usual thing.”

“We should still see about it,” Aoi said. “Even if they’re not good guys, we can at least find something out from them.”

“I think they’re definitely bad guys,” Sayaka said. “Did anyone else look at the Rules on our ElectroIDs?”

About half of the class shook their heads.

“Well, um—it says that apparently, if someone kills someone else and doesn’t get caught… we ‘graduate’…” She looked up from her ElectroID nervously. “But—they’re not here, right? So, we s-shouldn’t have to worry about that?”

Everybody glanced around uneasily. “I mean,” Leon said, “It also says that creepy demon bear is our headmaster,” he pointed at the inert Monokuma, which was splayed out in the center of the table, “but it looks kinda KO’d to me…”

“But at the same time, we don’t know if it might turn on at some point,” Celeste pointed out. “There’s an awful lot of ambiguity to this whole arrangement.”

“Can it even be called an arrangement?” Junko asked. “It seems like whoever came up with this has sorta left the building.”

“Perhaps we should wait until we know more before we make a final judgment on this,” Kyouko suggested. “Paranoia and speculation will only make us turn against each other—which I assume is the whole point of these rules, and perhaps what the bear had in mind for us…”

“So basically, figure out what’s happening, or wait for Two-Face Plushie to do something,” Mondo said. “I dunno, that’s playin’ it too safe to me.”

“We should keep an eye on it,” Aoi said. “That way if it turns on, we’ll know immediately. I know I’m not gonna follow any of those crazy rules if it’s not gonna be around to say something about it.”

“I agree,” Sakura said. “If the rules cannot be enforced, I see no reason to follow them, especially since they seem to suggest murder as a course of action.”

“We should focus on finding a way out of here,” Makoto said. “That way we can forget about all this and go back to our lives.”

“We should find out who did this first,” Kiyotaka said. “Imprisoning us in this academy against our will, leaving us abandoned—it suggests foul play!”

“The upper floors probably have more ans—”

Kyouko was abruptly cut off by a sudden chiming. “What on earth?”

A video screen turned on, and the robot bear appeared, sitting in a chair with a glass of… wine?

“Mm, ahem, this is a school annoucement,” it said, in a disturbingly chipper voice. “It is now 10 PM. As such, it is officially Night Time. Soon the doors to the dining hall will be locked, and entry at that point is _strictly_ prohibited! Okay then! Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

The screen turned off, and after a tense moment, Mondo spoke up.

“That was recorded, right?” He pointed at the bear on the table. “Because he’s right there. He can’t’ve—he couldn’t’ve—…”

“We must accept the possibility that it wasn’t,” Kyouko said uneasily. “But if it isn’t, then that begs the question, why didn’t it come to us earlier?”

“We should go to sleep,” Makoto said. “It said the dining hall will be locked soon. Plus… I don’t want to think about this any more until I’ve gotten some rest. This is too much to handle right now.”

Everybody murmured their agreement, and quickly left for their rooms. The first day of their entrapment, and no answers were in sight; only questions, paranoia, and exhaustion.

* * *

 

**_MONOKUMA THEATER_ **

 

_“…”_

_“…”_

_“…”_

_“…”_

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I get the feeling our "welcoming committee" has disappeared."


	2. Breaking Down Our Barriers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not feed the bears.

The morning brought with it a profound sense of emptiness.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru woke up promptly at 6:45, like normal. His mind was unaddled by any dreams, thank the gods, but when he opened his eyes, he felt his heart sink in his chest as he remembered his situation. Trapped in the illustrious Hope’s Peak Academy against his will, with no way out that he or his classmates could see. Cut off completely from the outside world, left only with a few thousand square feet to roam in under artificial lights. It brought him an intense emotional pang to think of what was outside these impenetrable walls… His family, unaware of what had really happened to him, believing he was receiving the finest education in the world, counting on him to restore honour and respect to the Ishimaru name—he had to take a moment before he could rise out of his bed.

Then, when he approached the shower, ready to begin his daily _misogi_ ritual, he was again hurt when no water would come out. “Oh,” he muttered as he remembered. “That’s right. No water runs at Night Time, which does not end until 7:00 AM.”

He sat on the floor and leaned against the glass wall of the shower. “These are trying times indeed. A strange environment, surrounded by even stranger circumstances, coupled with the paranoia and angst of fourteen others who I will soon know as my peers. Nobody knows anything, or at least they say they don’t… and here I am, wondering what steps I can take here.” He buried his head in his hands. “I feel so confused…”

He waited patiently until 7 AM came. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by another possibly-recorded message from that bear he was quickly learning to hate.

“Good morning, everyone!” it enthused, swirling its drink in its paw. “It is now 7 AM, and Night Time is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beeeeee- _yu-_ tiful day!”

Taka sighed heavily. “I sincerely hope that bear is dead.”

He stood up and quickly immersed himself in _misogi._

* * *

 As he exited his dorm at 7:20 sharp, he felt his spirits slowly lifting. _Misogi_ had been a comforting moment of familiarity that he needed more than he realised, and it had reminded him of his inner strength. No matter what laid around the next corner, he would have the fortitude to face it with his all. He was the Ultimate Moral Compass! He was not going to let something like this defeat him so easily!

Invigourated, he made his way to the dining hall. “Good morning, fellow classmates!” he shouted.

About three people were at the table.

He frowned. “Where is everyone else? It is a weekday, correct? Breakfast should be starting in,” he checked his watch, “7 minutes!”

“Um,” Sayaka said, a spoonful of yogurt halfway to her mouth, “I don’t think there’s a schedule for breakfast here…”

“Nonsense!” Taka exclaimed, pulling out his ElectroID. “It must have one in here somewhere…”

But, to his surprise, no such schedule was listed. “How odd,” he said, tucking it back in his lapel pocket. “Well! In that case, I suppose the others may arrive when they please! However, I must make my support for a communal breakfast clear! Dining together will bring us closer together as a class, and we need all the support from each other that we can get!”

“Not to be rude, dude,” Yasuhiro said, “But I think you’re gonna have a tough time doing that.”

“Why is that?” Taka asked.

“Because you’ve gotta deal with jerks like Togami-san,” Yasuhiro explained. “That guy would probably use that whole graduation thing if that creepy bear was awake, he hates us.”

“A-All the more reason to bring him here!” Taka said awkwardly. “Spending time with us will make him realise what good people we all are!”

“Good people, you say?”

Taka spun around to see Celeste enter the dining hall. “Yes! Good people, we are all good people!”

She giggled quietly, putting a hand to her mouth. “My, my, Ishimaru-san. You’re quite optimistic this morning.”

“Indeed I am!” he said proudly, thumping his chest.

“Well, forgive me for saying this, but I think that it is unwise to be optimistic in a condundrum like this,” she said as she walked over to the table. “Far too often I have seen innocent men like you lose everything to optimism like that.”

“…If you are referring to your illicit practice of gambling, this is not the same,” he said. “You exploited their optimism, thus _you_ are responsible for their losses.”

She leaned closer to him. “And who’s to say I won’t do the same here, hmm?”

She turned away before he could respond.

“Well!” he huffed, straightening his coat. “There’s no need for such antagonism this early in our time here!”

“Guess you’re gonna have to deal with her _and_ Togami-san,” Yasuhiro chuckled.

“Yes, I suppose so,” Taka said, scowling at her retreating back. “But I will not let this set us back! We will make the best of this!”

* * *

 Around 8:15, everybody had congregated in the dining hall. Sayaka confirmed that the fridges had been restocked overnight, which made everybody feel a little better. At least they wouldn’t die of dehydration or starvation any time in the near future. Monokuma had also remained inactive, it seemed, unmoved from its spot on the table (“Can we move it outta here?” Leon asked. “I feel like it’s watching me.”). The biggest unknown remained what had gone wrong and left them alone here, as well as why they had been imprisoned to begin with.

“Well, I mean, we found fuck-all on this floor,” Junko said. “I think that we need to figure out a way to get upstairs.”

“Yeah,” Chihiro agreed. “Maybe if we can find a way to open the gates, we can find some stuff up there.”

“Those gates are rock-solid, though,” Mondo said, spinning a fork in his hand agitatedly. “Oogami-san and I couldn’t get ‘em to budge.”

“Do we have any way of getting around the gates?” Makoto asked.

“The only way I can think of is to break through the surrounding wall,” Sakura said. “Depending on what it is made of, we might be able to do it. Breaking through the gate itself will not work, though; I cannot think of a way to weaken the metal.”

“I mean, the steel plates are super tough,” Aoi said, “but the walls are probably just drywall and insulation.”

“We would have to watch out for wiring and things like that,” Yasuhiro said. “If you punch the wrong spot, you might get zapped."

“Well, how far into the wall does the gate go?” Kyouko asked. “If it isn’t more than a few inches on either side, I don’t think wiring will be an issue.”

“We will have to look again,” Sakura said. “It was not something we considered.”

“C-can you guys really break through th-the wall, though?” Touko asked incredulously. “Th-that stuff is tough!”

“I mean, if it’s just drywall and wood and shit, probably,” Mondo said. “It’s not super thick stuff.”

“We should avoid removing any wood,” Celeste said. “Better to make a clean hole through. This way the ceiling won’t collapse and bring the second floor down to _us.”_

“Looking at the map, I don’t see anything that should be in the way,” Leon said. “But we’re gonna need to go at a diagonal to get past the gate.”

“Good thing it’s drywall, then,” Junko said. “Two sheets, get past the beams and stuff in there, should be easy-peasy!”

“Keep in mind that we will have to repeat this process to get past the second floor’s gate,” Kyouko pointed out. “And presumably every other floor will have one too.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have too many floors, then,” Makoto said uneasily.

“Alright!” Taka exclaimed. “Let us adjourn this meeting and test this theory!”

Everybody looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief. “Dude,” Mondo said, “some of us just got here.”

Taka felt a flare of anger rise up in his chest, but he quickly tamped it down. “Of course, you’re right. But I expect that we should all be finished no later than 9 AM! Gaining access to the upper floors is paramount!”

* * *

 It ended up taking until 9:15 for everybody to finish their breakfasts, even with liberal prodding from Taka. Who could possibly eat so slowly? It frustrated him that these students did not have the full discipline expected of them to function properly in a school environment. If a machine is not well-oiled, it will run poorly and fail sooner! Of course, that sort of described education in general…

Nevertheless, they exited the dining hall and walked over to the gate barring access to the building’s second floor. “Well, that looks pretty sturdy…” Leon said.

Sakura moved up to the wall and started knocking on it. “I’m checking where the gate ends inside the wall. If it is not too far in, this will be easier.” She slowly moved to the right, and stopped after a few inches. “This is the end of the gate. There is probably a wooden beam here as well. I need to find the next beam to determine the weak point of the wall.”

She continued knocking, moving about 5 feet before she stopped again. “This is the second beam here. I didn’t hear anything in between them, so there shouldn’t be crossbeams in the middle. I will try to break the wall now. I suggest you stand back.”

Everybody quickly skittered back a few steps.

Sakura pulled back her arm, and with a yell, she punched the wall with all her might.

The drywall broke open with a loud _CRACK,_ a cloud of dust erupting from the edges of the newly formed hole. Sakura removed her fist from it. “Well then. It seems we’ve broken through.”

“Good job, Oogami-san!” Makoto said. “Can you see anything in there?”

“Not yet,” she said, peering into the hole with one eye. “We still need to widen this hole enough for us to fit through.”

“Let’s get crackin’, then!” Mondo said enthusiatically, cracking his knuckles.

They set to work ripping out the drywall. It took longer than they expected (apparently they weren’t all accustomed to tearing out sheet rock in their free time), but in a few minutes, the first hole had been made big enough for everyone to fit through. Looking inside revealed a few wooden beams about 4 feet in the air, so it would be a tight fit for everyone, but they would be able to get through for the time being. 

“Has anyone else considered just ripping out the gate?” Junko asked.

“That’s probably more trouble than it’s worth,” Kyouko said. “We should see if we can find the security room and turn them off.”

“W-wait, how do you know there’s a s-security room?” Touko asked suspiciously.

“It’s a school with gates,” Kyouko said. “I would be surprised if there _isn’t_ a security room.”

“She got you there!” Yasuhiro laughed.

“Sh-shut up!”

Sakura clambered through the hole, and a few moments later, she punched through the other side of the wall. “Alright. Once we widen this hole we will have access to the stairwell. Hopefully this goes all the way to the top of the building.”

“I don’t see why it shouldn’t,” Sayaka said, looking at the map. “It’s the only one on this map…”

“Then our first priority should be to bypass all the gates in this stairwell!” Taka proclaimed. “After we do that, we can split up and search each floor in groups, then report our findings at dinner!”

Byakuya sighed heavily.

“Something to say, Togami-san?” Celeste giggled.

“No,” he snapped. “And if I did, I certainly wouldn’t impart my wisdom to _you.”_

“What’s your deal?” Aoi asked hotly.

“I am not here by choice,” he replied, clenching his teeth. “I see no reason why I should help you with your asinine attempts to find a way out, but I am _dragged_ here at your insistence.”

“Dude, if it bugs you so fuckin’ much, why don’t you make like a tree and get the hell outta here?” Mondo growled.

“Gladly!” Byakuya said, and quickly strode off down the hall.

“…Well, _that_ went well,” Leon said. “Does he have, like, _any_ little bit of a soul in there?”

“Underneath all that self-inflated ego?” Celeste laughed. “I find it unlikely.”

“I guess that’s what happens when you’re the Ultimate Affluent Progeny,” Aoi said with a scowl. “You never learn how to talk to people like a normal human being.”

“…I think someone should go talk to him,” Makoto said after a long moment.

A few people gave him a sideways look. “You wanna _talk_ to him?” Mondo asked with a confused face.

“Um—yeah…” he said. “I mean, we’re all in this together, right?”

“He seems pretty happy being by himself,” Chihiro mumbled.

“I think I’ll go talk to him,” Makoto said, starting to back away from the crowd. “I-I’ll catch you guys upstairs.”

He turned and ran down the hall after Byakuya, just as Sakura emerged on the other side of the gate. “Alright. I will go on ahead and break through the walls to the other floors, then return here when I have finished.”

“Excellent work, Oogami-san!” Taka said enthusiastically.

She nodded, and bounded up the stairs.

* * *

 All told, it took under an hour to breach all the gates in the stairwell, which opened up access to four more floors of the building. When Sakura returned, Taka divided everybody into four groups of fours and threes, and instructed them to thoroughly search each floor, then return to the dining hall once they had finished looking for any potentially important clues. He spearheaded the search of the fourth floor, along with Kyouko and Chihiro.

“Well, well, well!” he exclaimed as they pushed through the hole in the wall. “We meet at last, fourth floor!” He whirled around energetically to face his classmates. “I suggest that we look together, in case any unpleasant surprises reveal themselves! Strength lies in numbers!”

“I don’t have a problem with that…” Chihiro said nervously.

“Let us commence, then!” he shouted, and pressed onward.

“The first thing I notice is that there is a music hall here!” he said, pointing to a sign above the first door on the left, which had a small piano etched into it. “Shall we have a look?”

Without waiting for an answer, he strode to the door and grabbed the handle, flinging it—

“Um—well, this is a slight surprise!” he said, jiggling the handle forcefully. “The door is locked! And there’s no card reader!”

“Someone obviously didn’t want us coming up here,” Kyouko said. “Probably whoever trapped us here.”

“I agree!” he said, pushing even harder on the handle. “But we cannot investigate if we can’t open a single door up here!”

“Do you think everyone else is having the same problem?” Chihiro asked.

“It’s—very—possible!” Taka huffed, starting to ram the door with his shoulder.

“We should get Oogami-san, then, shouldn’t we?”

“Perhaps! However—I would like—to at least—attempt it myself first!”

“Ishimaru-san, that won’t work,” Kyouko said.

“Why not?” he asked, spinning around.

“Because the door opens outward, you see? If it opened inwards there would be an overlap along the right side of the door and the frame.”

Taka looked along the door frame. “But there isn’t. You are correct, Kirigiri-san!” He dusted off his shoulder, wincing slightly. “In that case, we must ask Oogami-san and Oowada-san to lend their strength again! To the fifth floor!”

They turned and walked out into the stairwell—only to run into the search parties for the floors below them. “You too?” Leon panted, grabbing the railing for support.

“It appears so!” Taka sighed frustratedly. “Whoever planned this obviously did so with great care!” He gestured upstairs. “Very well, let us retrieve our other classmates and start this over!”

* * *

 They agreed that with all the time it would take to break the lock of each door, they would investigate all together. The locks proved too strong to pick or break, so Sakura and Mondo resorted to smashing the doors completely down. It was a time-consuming process, taking a few hours to search each floor, but Taka refused to be disheartened by it. They were still on schedule to be finished before Night Time, and the gods willing, they would find a few answers to their many, many questions.

The second floor yielded a few points of interest: a large, bountiful library; an Olympic-sized swimming pool (which set Aoi into an ecstatic tizzy for multiple minutes); changing rooms that doubled as workout rooms, divided by gender; and a couple new classrooms. Most disturbingly, outside the changing rooms, multiple machine guns were hanging limply from the ceiling. “What the actual fuck is up with that?” Mondo asked when he saw them. “Jeez, they really didn’t want the guys to mix with the gals…”

“Let’s hope they’re also off,” Aoi said nervously, wringing her hands as she looked up at one of them.

The third floor held something more to Taka’s interests: a physics lab, which contained an incredibly large and rather strange machine. Some searching around the room told them that it was, of all things, an air purifier. “I suppose that makes sense,” he said. “It is a large building, and even though there are only a few of us, it would make sense that the air would need to be purified.”

“It’s running quite loudly, though,” Hifumi noted. “It shouldn’t be working _this_ hard, should it?”

“Another weird thing about this place,” Sayaka said.

They also found a rec room, which Yasuhiro was immensely pleased by. They had to convince him to leave the room with the promise of letting him return after dinner.

Taka was starting to feel a bit lethargic as they exited the music hall on the fourth floor. “Not much more now!” he said loudly. “We are more than one half of the way finished searching!”

“I would prefer we take a few minutes before we search the next room,” Celeste said, leaning against a wall for support. “This has been rather draining…”

“Yeah man, my fists can’t take too much more door-breaking,” Mondo said.

“Fine, fine!” Taka exploded. “One more door, one more room, and then we can rest for a few minutes! But first, let’s open one more door, alright?!”

“Whoa, okay, man,” Leon said. “Let’s do it.”

Mondo started grumbling to himself as he wound up to break down the next door. Taka blocked it out. Just one more door, and they could take a few minutes to rest, just one more…

Mondo broke down the door with a pained roar. “Mother _fucker!”_ he shouted, for the fifth time in a row. “Okay, that’s the door down, I’m taking a break!”

He trudged inside the room and promptly slid down to a sitting position next to the door frame. Taka entered with equal exhaustion…

but the room’s contents woke him up in a matter of seconds.

“Everyone!” he exclaimed. “Look at this!”

Everybody entered the room, and were dumbstruck by what they saw. The image they were processing was reaching their brains, but they couldn’t quite believe it.

“…We’ve found the security room,” Kyouko said.

“Indeed we have…” Taka breathed. “And now we know the cameras aren’t a trick.”

The walls were covered in gigantic screens, all of which had gone snowy, and the roaring sound of static filled the entire room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "And who's to say I won't do the same here, hmm?"


	3. Adaptation (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a through street.

“But—this doesn’t make sense,” Makoto said. “How can somebody have just _disappeared_ and left us here?”

“Maybe they didn’t disappear?” Aoi guessed nervously.

“I doubt somebody could disappear without a trace from here,” Byakuya sighed irritably. “The only exits are either locked shut beyond any hope of unlocking them, or they’re covered by enormous steel plates.”

“Is it possible that they knew how to unlock the exit?” Celeste postulated.

“That stills leaves a missing motive,” Kyouko said. “Why would they leave, knowing full well that we were here?”

Nobody could think of a reason.

“Um—sorry, but…” Sayaka said suddenly, “you guys see that door there too, right?”

She pointed at a door directly across the room from them, nestled between the camera screens, which appeared to be plastered with a giant picture of—

“That fucking _bear!”_ Mondo barked. “It just keeps showing up!”

“This just keeps getting weirder and w-weirder,” Touko agreed.

“Maybe that’s where it’s controlled from?” Chihiro suggested.

“What?”

“Well, I mean,” she said, wringing her hands together nervously, “it’s a robot, and it obviously had to be controlled somehow. Maybe that’s its control room?”

“But it’s gone ka-put, though,” Junko said. “Does that mean that nobody’s there?”

“Maybe?” Chihiro said uncertainly.

“Well, we won’t know until we look for ourselves!” Taka said. “I propose we open that door and see what’s inside!”

“Whoa, whoa, hold on, dude!” Leon said, waving his arms wildly. “We don’t know if there might actually still be someone there!”

“Then why are the cameras off?” Hifumi asked. “Why was the robot bear off?”

“That’s true,” Sakura said gravely. “There is much more evidence suggesting that whoever would be operating this is not behind that door, or perhaps _any_ door in this school.”

“It sounds like we’ll have to take a chance,” Yasuhiro said. “But I’m pretty sure it’s empty.”

“Please, don’t say anything about your inane _divinations,”_ Byakuya said, heading towards the door. “Speculation gets us nowhere.”

Before anybody could stop him, he opened the door.

* * *

 “And here you are. See? Empty.”

He lazily pulled the door open, unveiling another room bursting at the seams with computers. At this point, the amount of equipment in the room was starting to shift from crazy to, well, kind of expected. “More computers, more unexplained connections between some sort of mastermind, and once again, no sign of anybody here,” he said. “I think I’ve seen enough of this tripe for one day.”

He strode away without looking back, bumping Kyouko’s shoulder as he passed her.

“Sunshine and fuckin’ daisies, huh?” Mondo sighed irritably.

“Between him and this room, I don’t know if I should be scared or pissed off,” Junko agreed. 

“…So, who’s gonna look in there first?” Aoi asked, wringing her hands as she looked inside it.

“Oh, come on, we keep sending one person into all the _empty rooms,”_ Leon groaned. “I’m pretty sure nothing is gonna jump out and whack us with a baseball bat or something.”

“True, but that’s still a risk we cannot take,” Sakura said. “I’ll check inside.”

Cautiously, she approached the door, and pushed it open. “…I see nothing. All clear.”

The rest of the class crowded into the room. “Holy shit…” Yasuhiro gasped. “This is _crazy,_ man!”

“All of this, just to control one little bear?” Makoto said. “Crazy is right!”

“Well, it answers the question of if it’s active,” Kyouko said. “It’s safe to assume that the mastermind behind it… really is gone.”

“We don’t know that!” Touko exclaimed. “W-what if he’s still here, just—hiding right under our n-noses?!”

“Do you see a trap door here?” Mondo challenged.

“Actually…” Kiyotaka said, crouching down in the center of the room in front of an indent in the floor that had some sort of handhold in it, “this looks like a trap door to me!”

“Should we look inside?” Sayaka asked nervously.

“Better than leaving whoever’s in there alone!” Junko said. “If someone is in there, we need to get ‘em!”

“Open the door, Ishimaru-san,” Kyouko ordered.

Kiyotaka swiftly flung open the door. “…There’s nobody here.”

Everybody peered down into the secret room. It was very small, large enough for maybe two people, if they were okay with being practically nose-to-nose with each other. It was also, as Kiyotaka had said, empty.

“So… the mastermind really is… gone?” Chihiro breathed.

“I guess so,” Aoi said. “I mean, where else could they be? This looks like where their hideout is.”

“They might still be on the fifth floor,” Hifumi suggested. “Barricaded behind one of the doors we have yet to open!”

“That’s true…”

Kiyotaka stood up. “As much as I would like to continue our search _immediately!—_ I believe a brief recess is in order. We have made great progress so far, class, and we will solve this mystery!”

“Your enthusiasm is… applaudable,” Celeste sighed tiredly as she returned to the security room.

“I’m going to take a nap,” Mondo said, shuffling out of the room.

Kyouko crouched down, frowning as she looked into the hidden hatch. “Only large enough for two people at most, no provisions of any kind… this must have been an emergency hatch, in case someone broke in.”

“Who would be able to, though?” Makoto wondered. “If the security room was locked from the inside…?”

“I don’t know.” She swung her legs inside and dropped down into it. “Nothing inside. No traces of anybody being here before… it’s very strange.”

“We keep finding all sorts of stuff that makes it seem like someone _should_ be here, but we haven’t found anyone else!” Leon said. “This is just plain old _weird!”_

“Agreed,” Sakura said. “Why _haven’t_ we found anyone, or any _thing_ besides that bear?”

“Something must’ve gone wrong,” Sayaka said. “Really, really wrong.”

“It’s a locked-room mystery,” Kyouko said. “Only instead of a body, _nobody_ is on the other side of the door. The question stays the same, though: how did they get out?”

“It’s like they’re some sort of wizard…” Chihiro said.

“But why would they leave to begin with?” Kiyotaka asked frustratedly. “It makes even less sense than _how!_ They gather us here, only to vanish before ever meeting us!”

“What if… they didn’t vanish because they meant to?” Makoto said.

“…You m-mean,” Touko stammered, “like if they were… a-abducted?!”

“Maybe? I don’t know.”

Kyouko pulled herself out of the hatch. “Whatever the case, we won’t be able to figure out _why_ if we can’t figure out _how._ If we can do that, then perhaps we can find a way to escape ourselves.”

“Well, there’s nothing we’ve found so far,” Leon grumbled. “Maybe the fifth floor has something, but… I’m not sure we _can_ leave.”

“Hey, we can’t think like that!” Makoto said. “We’ll find a way out eventually.”

“Man, I really hope you’re right,” Leon said. “I don’t wanna be stuck here for… who knows how long…”

“I think we’ve found all we can in this room,” Kyouko said. “We should take a break.”

“Yeah…” Sayaka nodded.

“We will figure this out,” Sakura said. “Nothing can stay hidden forever.”

“The truth _always_ comes forth!” Kiyotaka agreed.

“The question is… what does that mean for us?” Junko wondered.

The room slowly emptied, Junko’s question hanging over them like a stormcloud.

* * *

A few hours later, Celestia Ludenberg found herself in the cafeteria, playing Spider Solitaire. It was an interesting game to her, because unlike most card games she knew, and even the ones she didn’t, solitaire and its variants fell into the gray area of her talent. Alone, purely to pass the time, she lost frequently, perhaps right along the average win:loss ratio of regular players. Once a wager entered the playing field, though, she was guaranteed to win by default. You can’t beat an Ultimate Gambler, even at Spider Solitaire. Even when she didn’t know the rules, she would win. How amazing is that?

Right now, though, she was very uncertain of her odds. She had a few promising avenues, but the outcome looked like another failure. If she wasn’t so easily bored by beating everyone else, she might be frustrated by this. But she wasn’t. Loss was a pleasant change of pace at this point. She couldn’t be content with winning forever.

Someone sat in the seat across from her. She did not acknowledge them at first.

“That doesn’t look like a winning game to me.”

“…I’m not trying to win. Who would I be beating?”

“Chance? I don’t know.”

“That’s an interesting way of looking at it,” she mused as she completed a suit. “But you can’t beat chance.”

“Really? Why not?”

“Because your luck is programmed into you from the beginning. The minute you’re born, you are either given good or bad luck. Your odds are dictated for you, not the other way around.”

“But if you’re the Ultimate Gambler, shouldn’t that mean your luck guarantees you’ll always win?”

“Mm, no. I have yet to be beaten, but I suspect that my luck is not paramount. For instance, someone with Super High-School Level Good Luck… might be able to.”

“Huh.”

“I’m certain there are different varieties of luck. If there were not, I would simply be lucky no matter where I went. Instead, it is restricted to gambling. I am as likely to be struck with lightning as anyone else with average luck. But, once someone places a bet, then I have won.”

“How does that work?”

“I do not know. I only know that it does.”

She glanced up for a moment, just long enough to see who she was talking to. “Besides, if I did know, I would not tell you, Naegi-san. It would not do well for you to know my secrets.”

“…Is that why you’re playing Solitaire? To turn off your luck?”

She paused for a moment. “You’re very perceptive.” She scanned the game for any possible moves, then reluctantly added another ten cards. “Winning gets boring. Sometimes losing is good for the soul.” She smiled brightly. “Don’t you agree?”

Makoto was briefly dumbstruck. “Um—uh—I don’t know. Maybe?”

She giggled quietly. “You suffer from a lack of horizons, Naegi-san. Perhaps that is because you never used your talent when you might have wanted to.”

“I mean, I didn’t know I had Ultimate Good Luck until I got accepted into Hope’s Peak,” he confessed. “Looking back, some stuff makes sense with that in mind, but I didn’t know then. I can’t really use something I don’t know I have.”

“Hmm. I suppose your argument is sound in that respect. Luck is fickle in its manifestation sometimes. Obviously, mine is consistent, whereas yours appears to come and go. Mine is limited, but yours seems unbounded… so far.”

“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?”

“I gamble for a living. Luck is my life.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense.”

“It _does_ make sense.” She looked for another move, but ultimately, she couldn’t find one. “Hm. I’ve lost. Isn’t that interesting to someone like you?”

Makoto seemed to tense when she addressed him. “Uh—yeah, I mean—since you’re usually really good at card games—”

“Not _good._ _Lucky.”_ She began resetting the cards. “I’ll show you. Place a bet. Any kind you wish.”

“A bet?”

“Yes, it must be a bet. It’s the only way to ensure my win.” Before he could answer, she held up a hand. “No, wait. Not you.” She looked down the table. Yasuhiro, Hifumi, and Junko were all listlessly eating or doing something mindless. “Yamada-kun? Might I ask a favour of you?”

Hifumi jumped. “A-a favour?”

“Yes, a favour. I wish to gamble with you.”

“Gamble?” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “But aren’t you the Ultimate Gambler?”

“Yes, I am, Yamada-san. And I wish to gamble with you.”

Hifumi frowned suspiciously. “Why me?”

“Because you are guaranteed to lose if you agree,” she smiled cooly. 

“But why not just ask Naegi-dono?”

“Naegi-san has Super High-School Level Good Luck. I might lose to him, but never to you.”

“So you want me to bet you so you won’t lose?”

“I would like you to accept this offer, please.”

“Why would I accept an offer like tha—”

Suddenly, Celeste shot out of her seat, and before anybody knew it, her face was inches from his own, and her ringed finger was in front of him like a dagger. Her face was contorted in rage, and she was shaking violently as she shouted,

**_“JUST PLACE A BET, YOU PRESUMPTUOUS SACK OF SLIME!!”_ **

Hifumi squealed in terror. “A-a-anything you wish, Ludenberg-sama! Anything you ask, it’s yours!”

Then, just as suddenly as it had began, her explosion was over. She sat back down, serene, unfazed by their looks of shock and fear, and said, “Please make a bet on my next game.”

“Right away!” Hifumi squeaked, and quickly dashed over to his seat. He looked around frantically for something to wager, and sprinted back clutching… a salt shaker? “I bet a week’s worth of salt!”

Celeste and Makoto both looked at him strangely. “Salt…” Celeste repeated, not quite believing him.

“I-I adore salt! It is one of my favourite additions to any meal!” he explained panickedly. “A week without salt is a week without meaningful taste to me!”

She sighed heavily. “Very well. It’ll do.”

Hifumi began bowing as much as he could. “Thank you, Ludenberg-sama! Your kindness will always be remembered by me!”

“Very well. Go, go, you’re making a scene of yourself.”

“Right away!” He zipped back to his seat and buried himself in his food, as the others looked on in amazement.

“That went well…” Makoto said weakly.

“We have a bet,” Celeste smiled. “Now I can show you what I mean. Since Yamada-kun has provided a wager, I will match it. If I lose, I will lose a week’s worth of salt. Now it is a gamble.”

She began her game. “I can say with certainty, even though this is a four-suit game, with two of each suit in play, I will be able to win. Yamada-kun’s bet ensures that.”

“Could you win if you bet against yourself?”

“It would not work. There is no risk involved. If I lost, I would still have everything I started with. It would come back to me regardless of the outcome.”

She was moving much more swiftly than the last game. Already she nearly had the first suit complete. “It only works when I stand to lose to another. Losing would mean something then. As a result, my gambling luck comes into play, and I seal my victory.” She completed the first suit. Was she even paying any attention to which cards she was moving? She felt like her eyes were unfocusing. “The one thing I think could defeat me is luck like yours, Naegi-san. You might find yourself lucky enough to beat me one day. I’m certain the other Ultimate Lucky Students could find it in themselves to do the same.”

“You mean like Ayame Hirasi, or Nagito Komaeda?”

“Yes, either of them would have the odds in their favour. But again, luck is fickle. Perhaps they would win, perhaps I would. Or maybe we would reach a stalemate. Anything could happen.”

“So… it would be like a real game then.”

“…Yes, it would, I suppose.” She was finished with the second suit. “It’s a pity we don’t know where they are. It would be an interesting game. All four of us, perhaps, playing a game of Mahjong.”

Makoto looked a bit uneasy at the thought of that.

“If not all of us, it would be fun to have someone without that luck playing. Very satisfying to watch the unlucky be separated from the lucky.”

“You… _really_ have thought about this a lot,” Makoto said.

“Luck is my life.”

She went quiet, and in under two minutes, she had completed all of the suits. “You see? On my own, there is no guaranteed success. Once I play to win, though, it becomes certain.” She smiled again. “Shall I tell Yamada-kun, or shall you?”

Makoto jumped out of his seat. “I-I’ll tell him. You can—go back to whatever you were doing before I showed up.”

“Very well.” She collected her cards. “I’m so glad we had this talk.”

Makoto quickly moved away, and she allowed herself to smile a little more widely as she watched. Luck was a great talent, but nothing quite beat intimidating the everloving daylights out of an opponent, unwilling or otherwise. It brightened her day a little bit more. She needed that more than ever now… if she was expected to thrive in this prison. Either that, or she too would have to find a way out, and fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Winning gets boring. Sometimes losing is good for the soul.”
> 
> —
> 
> Apologies for the wait. The last three and a half months have been a taxing year.


End file.
